Israel Minister urges Arab League for flexibility

Jerusalem, Apr 19: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged the Arab League on Thursday to ''show flexibility'' by agreeing to wider talks over a sweeping land-for-peace proposal instead of setting conditions.

She said Israel was prepared to meet with an Arab League working group composed of Egypt and Jordan but wanted other Arab states that do not already have full relations with Israel to take part from the start.

''Israel, on its part, is open to dialogue,'' Livni said during a closed door meeting with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. But she said the Arab League should show ''some flexibility'' in order to ''reinforce the positive steps that Israel takes''.

''Those Arab countries, with whom we don't have relations, could be a party to such a process from the start, instead of setting conditions,'' Livni said, according to a statement issued by her office.

At a meeting yesterday in Cairo, the Arab League named only Egypt and Jordan as the members of a working group which will contact Israel over an Arab peace plan offering normal relations in return for land and a Palestinian state.

The Arab League said the mandate for Egypt and Jordan would be ''to start efforts to put the Arab peace initiative into effect (and) facilitate a start to direct negotiations''.

Egypt and Jordan already have relations with Israel. The United States and the Israeli government had hoped that the Arab League would include other governments in the working group.

The Arab League said the Arab working group could be expanded at a later stage if the Israeli government met a list of Arab demands, including lifting sanctions against the Palestinian government and an end to work on Jewish settlements and on the barrier it is building through the West Bank.

The land for peace initiative, relaunched at an Arab League summit last month in Riyadh, offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a ''just solution'' for Palestinian refugees.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that he sees positive points in the Saudi led peace initiative. But Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state, and wants to hold on to major settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

Israel said it was unclear when the Arab League working group would initiate contacts.

''The fact today that the Arab League is apparently sending a delegation to Israel, this is of importance,'' said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. ''We believe that the Arab side can come to the talks with its position. We will come to the talks with our position.''

REUTERS